Improvement and innovation bulletin

January 2026

Sector support offers

'Make a Difference, Work for Your Local Council’ - national recruitment campaign for local government launched

A national recruitment campaign 'Make a Difference, Work for Your Local Council’ has been launched, promoting careers in local government and highlighting how rewarding working in the sector can be. The campaign, funded by UK Government, will shine a spotlight on the brilliant opportunities to grow your career in local government during January and February 2026. Councils are being provided with a campaign toolkit as part of their recruitment activity, to enhance the national reach of the campaign.

Finance Unpacked

Finance Unpacked is a series of animated explainer videos to provide both councillors and officers with an understanding of some of the key concepts within local government finance and audit. The videos can be used to support learning and development for those new in role, as a refresher on key finance topics, or as a resource for new councillor induction programmes.

Culture and library peer challenge opportunities

Arts Council England and the LGA are offering fully-funded culture and library peer challenge opportunities to councils across England throughout 2026. These peer challenges can provide useful insights that can directly contribute to strategic work focused on devolution, income generation, economic growth, public health and wider cross-cutting priorities. For more information visit our culture and library services programmes page.

Tackling skills shortages

The LGA, working with councils, has co-produced six workforce strategies to support the local government sector to address capacity issues.  We have drawn together current knowledge and practice to address the workforce challenges faced in Town Planning, Civil Engineering, Economic Development, ICT, Legal, and Building Control.

Golden Triangle development events

We are running a series of in-person events and online webinars starting in January 2026 for Chief Executives, S151 Officers and Monitoring Officers to support you in your collective role in maintaining the corporate health and effective financial and ethical governance that ensures councils can deliver for the local community. The events will bring together the distinct roles to support your building of a good governance culture, identify practical tools and actions to embed back at your organisation, and benefit from peer-to-peer networking and learning.

Sign up via the Golden Triangle registration form and email virginia.ponton@local.gov.uk with any questions.

Impact: The Local Government Graduate Programme

Councils can still sign up to join the next round of recruitment for the LGA’s flagship national graduate programme for an autumn intake. Impact is the LGA’s flagship graduate programme, matching high-calibre graduate trainees with local authorities across England and Wales, providing a cost-effective solution to workforce and capacity challenges. The programme welcomes participation from authorities actively involved in reorganisation.

Sign up for Impact: Cohort 28 and get in touch: Impact@local.gov.uk.

Webinars and events

Connecting the dots: Using performance, finance and risk information together to inform decisions, scrutiny and assurance

Tuesday 27 January 2026, 10.00am - 11.30am

This session will consider how the respective roles of decision-makers, scrutiny, audit and officers can complement each other to keep local authorities safe and financially sustainable while delivering outcomes for their communities.

Book now: Connecting the dots

Designing and implementing a successful data strategy in local government

Tuesday 27 January 2026, 1.00pm - 2.30pm

Join us to explore how councils are designing and implementing data strategies.

Book now: Designing and implementing a successful data strategy in local government

LGA National Construction Conference

• Day 1: Wednesday 4 February 2026, 10.00am - 12.30pm
• Day 2: Thursday 12 February 2026, 10.00am - 12.30pm
  

Join us for an inspiring and informative national construction procurement conference, dedicated to shaping the future of construction within local government. 

This online conference is being held over two days and there will be a different programme on each day. Delegates wishing to attend both days will need to register to attend both events.

Book now: Day 1 - Wednesday 4 February 2026

Book now: Day 2 - Thursday 12 February 2026

Leadership Essentials Transformation

Saturday 7 - Sunday 8 February 2026

As a councillor, you’re likely hearing that ‘transformation programmes’ are the way to make efficiencies and savings but what does that really mean? Our series of Leadership Essentials on Transformation will help demystify transformation, giving councillors the confidence and capability to lead the transformation agenda within their councils. 

Book now: Leadership Essentials: Transformation

LGA sustainability roundtable: Measuring greenhouse gas emissions

Tuesday 10 February 2026, 10.00am - 11.45am

Explore best practice in setting and updating greenhouse gas reporting boundaries and baselines. See a live demo of our free GHG Accounting Tool and Waste Emissions Calculator, hear from a council leading on emissions measurement, and share insights with peers in interactive discussions.

Book now: Measuring greenhouse gas emissions roundtable

Data and managing council performance: Training for councillors

Wednesday 11 February 2026, 2.00pm - 4.30pm

The session will be facilitated in the form of a taught course, with plenty of opportunities for attendees to participate throughout.

Book now: Data and managing council performance

LGA transformation conference: Delivering effective change

Thursday 26 February 2026, 10.30am - 3.30pm

Now in its third year, the LGA Transformation Conference: Delivering effective change returns in the spring. The programme will focus on the realities of driving change in local government, with sessions covering key themes such as change management, resilience through change, local government reorganisation, benefits realisation, prioritisation, and the role of AI and emerging technologies.

Book now: Transformation conference

Transformation action learning workshops

Workshop 3: Thursday 5 March 2026, 2.00pm - 4.30pm (1 place remaining)

The LGA transformation action learning workshops are half-day development opportunities for councillors and officers to explore possible solutions in an action learning based environment to work through shared obstacles in their transformation programmes. You will be matched with councils with similar challenges to collaborate and benefit from enhanced networking and cross-sector learning. For further information and to sign up, please visit the LGA website or email Rajpreet.Khera@local.gov.uk.

Book now: Transformation action learning workshops

Centre for Governance and Scrutiny (CfGS) annual conference

Thursday 12 March 2026

The CfGS annual conference will take place on Thursday 12 March 2026 in Birmingham. The event will enable members and officers to share insight and expertise on delivering excellence in governance and scrutiny and explore how to respond to the changing landscape of local democracy.  Bookings before 31 December secure a 20% discount. 

Book now: CfGS annual conference

Additionally, you might be interested in...

New year solutions with LGA workforce

Whatever the challenge, we’ve got a myriad of tools to support you throughout 2026 and beyond. Check out our workforce offers webpage and explore a range of support designed to optimise your workforce operations.

Employment relations programme launch

2025 saw the launch of the LGA’s improving employment relations programme. We look forward to meeting more councils at training dates in 2026 and at the next webinar. If you’d like to attend the one-day employment relations foundational training course please email ella.donald@local.gov.uk giving the names and emails of two HR officers who can attend:

• Thursday 29 January, Manchester
• Thursday 12 February, London
• Wednesday 4 March, Newcastle

LG Inform

See the latest updated reports in LG Inform

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For information on LG Inform contact us at lginform@local.gov.uk, or to take advantage of the benefits of subscribing to LG Inform Plus, contact lginformplus@local.gov.uk.

Yours faithfully,

Cllr Jane Scullion
Chair of the LGA Improvement Committee